Chasing Your Dreams Requires 5 Key Ingredients

I'm going to tell you a story about my friend Cassie. She's an amazing baker and in college she pursued a graphic design degree and then eventually started on her master's in typography. Baking had been a hobby of hers for many years and she finally decided to turn her passion into a business. She dropped out of grad school and started putting all of her efforts and resources into her fledgling business, Boujie Baking Company.

Cassie's business, Boujie Baking Company, creates treats that are created using fine ingredients and beers from regional craft breweries. What started out as just a casual hobby, has evolved into a new career venture that has an interesting hook. Cassie eventually left her day job and focused on growing her business full-time which was aided greatly by a Kickstarter campaign. Let's fast forward 18 months. Today, she's still a one woman show, doing the accounting, marketing, baking, packaging, shipping, networking, etc. for her business, but the amazing thing is her business has reached an interesting crossroads in terms of its growth.

Read on to learn more about the crossroads Cassie has reached and four things are needed to chase your dreams.

Cassie has been working long hours on her own trying to grow her business. With all of the hard work she's devoted to her business, she got an amazing opportunity to sell some of her wares to Whole Foods. Yes, THAT Whole Foods. But with the opportunity comes a problem: lack of resources.

Every business owner faces the challenge of being able to keep up with demand, especially if they create an amazing product. Since Cassie is on her own and needs to hire help, she has once again turned to Kickstarter to help fund her growth. Having limited resources has certainly been a challenge, but Cassie hasn't let this deter her from her dreams.

Passion

If you're not passionate about what you're doing, starting a business is just another job to you. If the prospect of doing something you love excites you, that passion is contagious and will help you get through the dark times of starting your business. Hey, I never said it would be easy.

Persistence

It doesn't matter what you do, you will fail at some point in your life. But failing is part of the learning process. You get an idea of what works, what doesn't, and you start again. The worst thing you can do is to never try. Perseverance coupled with your passion will get you through the tough times and let you focus on the bigger picture.

Instinct

Trust your gut. If something doesn't seem right, seems too good to be true, or something else is raising red flags, listen to yourself. You have to know when to cut your losses and move on to the next thing instead of wasting time and resources on something that may or may not work. Your inner self knows you well.

Luck

You make your own luck. Yeah, I've heard that adage too. But in reality, starting a business requires not only passion and persistence, but a little bit of luck. Things happen that are way beyond your control and sometimes you just have to have a little faith that things will work out. Cassie has an amazing opportunity to introduce her products to the mainstream through Whole Foods. She created a quality product that one of the Whole Foods buyers happened upon and enjoyed.

Capital

From equipment, resources, your personal network, money, etc. you need capital in a variety of forms in order to start and grow your business. Cassie has a pretty good network of people who will help her with her business, but she needs financial backing to take it to the next level.

Conclusion

Chasing your dreams isn't something that just happens. It requires a lot of dedication and hard work in order for it to become a reality. With a little luck, listening to your gut, and taking calculated risks, you too can be successful.

Disclosure of Material Connection

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